Natasha drank the potion.
She didn't doubt him for even a second. Didn't ask what it was, didn't question the strange glow emanating from the liquid, didn't hesitate despite having no idea what she was consuming. She just tilted her head back and let the contents flow down her throat.
She trusted him enough for that.
The effect was immediate. Natasha's body began to glow from within, a soft luminescence that started at her core and spread outward through her veins like something replacing blood. Her skin seemed to shimmer, and the air around her took on a faint warmth that hadn't been there before.
Lucien watched expectantly, his eyes tracking every change, every shift in her condition. He needed to know what the effects of this potion were, needed to see if his gamble had paid off or if he'd just given a dying woman false hope.
This wasn't a health potion. He knew that much for certain. This was an Awakening Potion, something designed to help a normal human body awaken to mana and become accustomed to channeling that energy. It was a mid-rank awakening potion, and it was rare enough that he'd only ever acquired one of them from dungeon rewards.
He had three low-rank awakening potions still sitting in his inventory, untouched and unused. But those were weaker, though he did not know how... just knew that they were.
The reason he'd been hesitating to use this one wasn't the rarity or the value. It was because he'd never used it on anyone before. He had no experimental data, no firsthand knowledge of the exact effects it would have. The system description had been frustratingly vague, mentioning "awakening" and "mana adaptation" without specifying what that actually meant in practical terms.
And the most important thing was that what Natasha needed right now wasn't awakening. What she needed was healing. Her body was full of poison, her organs were failing, and her blood was more toxic than oxygen at this point.
An awakening potion wasn't designed to cure poisoning or close bullet wounds.
He wasn't sure if this potion would actually save her life.
But it was his only bet.
The only other options had been taking her to a hospital or going to where Sinister was stationed with those thirty health potions. But if SHIELD and the Avengers were really compromised, if they were actively hunting Natasha, then a hospital would just be a trap. She'd be declared a fugitive the moment she showed up, and compromised heroes would descend on that location within minutes.
And Sinister was too far away. The shadow was conducting research in a facility that was at least an hour's drive from here, possibly more depending on traffic. Natasha wouldn't survive the journey. Hell, she might not survive the next five minutes at the rate the poison was spreading.
So this was it. The awakening potion was his best chance at saving her. If it didn't help, nothing would. And if she died...
Lucien's jaw tightened at the thought. If she died, he would fulfill her task. He would go to Hawaii, decrypt that drive, find whoever was controlling SHIELD and the Avengers, and make them pay for what they'd done. He'd put them in the ground so deep that hell would look like a step up.
But he hoped - genuinely hoped - that she would survive and put the person behind this on the nail herself. Natasha deserved that satisfaction.
Seconds passed. The glow from Natasha's body began to dim gradually, the light fading from bright to soft to barely visible. Lucien tracked every change, every shift in her vital signs.
His eyes landed on her wound, and his chest tightened.
It was still there. Four bullet holes clustered together, dark veins spreading outward, blood still seeping from torn flesh.
Was she going to die?
But just as that thought crystallized in his mind, something unexpected happened.
The dark veins that had been spreading like corruption through her body started to disappear. Not all at once, but from the edges first, like frost melting under morning sun. The blackness receded gradually, healing inward toward the wound from all directions.
Lucien watched, barely breathing, as the healing process continued. It moved in a circular pattern, the dark veins vanishing inch by inch as healthy flesh replaced corrupted tissue. The poison was being neutralized, expelled, or somehow transformed into something harmless.
Then the healing reached the wounds themselves.
Slowly - agonizingly slowly from Lucien's perspective, though it was probably happening faster than natural healing by orders of magnitude - the bullet holes began to close. Torn flesh knitted back together, damaged muscle fibers regenerated, and broken blood vessels sealed themselves shut.
It was working.
She was going to live.
Lucien let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, tension draining from his shoulders as relief flooded through him. The tight knot that had formed in his chest loosened slightly, though he remained alert in case something went wrong at the last moment.
The process took less than a minute from start to finish. By the time the glow had completely faded from Natasha's body, the wound had vanished entirely. Not even a scar remained - just smooth, unmarred skin where four poisoned bullets had torn through her flesh minutes before.
Natasha had seemingly passed out during the process, her eyes closed and her breathing deep and even. Lucien waited a few seconds to make sure the healing was complete, then slowly started shaking her shoulder.
"Natasha," he said, his voice carrying more urgency than he intended. "Natasha! Wake up!"
Her breathing was completely fine now - steady, deep, regular. Her heartbeat was faster than normal, elevated like someone who'd just finished a hard workout, but it seemed perfectly healthy rather than dangerously rapid. He could sense that her body had gained muscle mass during the transformation, subtle but noticeable. Her frame was slightly more defined, and her muscle tone improved.
So this was an awakening? The potion had strengthened her body as part of adapting it to handle mana. That made sense from a certain perspective - you'd need enhanced physical capabilities to channel supernatural energy safely.
Had the potion made her a hunter like in Solo Leveling?
He was about to check her status with his viewing ability when her eyes fluttered open.
"What's happening?" Natasha asked, her voice groggy with confusion. She blinked several times, trying to orient herself.
"How are you feeling?" Lucien asked immediately, studying her face for any signs of pain or discomfort.
"Fine. Just..." She paused, her brow furrowing. "Everything is so loud. I can hear the cars on the street above us, I can hear water dripping somewhere in this building, I can hear your heartbeat." She looked vaguely nauseous. "It's making me feel a bit sick, actually."
"Your senses are sharpened," Lucien explained. "It'll take some time to adjust and filter out the noise."
Natasha nodded slowly, then her hand moved instinctively to her waist, where the wound had been. Her fingers probed the spot, feeling smooth skin where there should have been torn flesh and blood. Her eyes widened in amazement.
She sat up quickly - too quickly, actually, moving with speed that surprised both of them - and pulled up what remained of her tactical suit to look at her waist directly.
Nothing. Not even a scar. Just skin.
She looked at Lucien with an expression that mixed wonder, confusion, and a hint of wariness. "What was that liquid?"
"Even I'm not entirely sure," Lucien admitted. "It's something that was supposed to awaken a normal human body and make it superior. Adapt it to handle mana, which is a form of energy."
Natasha raised an eyebrow, and despite everything she'd just been through, a sly smile crossed her face. "So I was a test subject?"
There it was.
Even after nearly dying, even after being transformed by an experimental potion, she was falling back on humor and attitude. That was so quintessentially Natasha that Lucien almost smiled despite the tension of the situation.
He shrugged his shoulders. "Kind of. Never tried it before on anyone. This was the only option I had, and I bet on the possibility that this 'awakening' process might heal you as a side effect."
Natasha laughed - actual laughter, bright and genuine. "It worked out pretty well, huh? Your first lab experiment was a success."
Right now, Natasha was playing it cool, keeping her tone light and joking. But Lucien could see the faint tension around her eyes, the slight stiffness in her shoulders. She was embarrassed.
She'd thought she was going to die. She'd said things - vulnerable things, honest things about death being inevitable and hoping he'd live a long life. She'd shown him a side of herself that she usually kept locked away behind professionalism and quips.
And now she was covering for it, deflecting with humor because that was easier than acknowledging what had passed between them in those moments when she'd been dying on the concrete floor.
Lucien understood that. He wasn't going to call her out on it or force her to address it. So he just smiled slightly and said, "Pretty much, yeah."
"So awakening, huh?" Natasha continued, clearly eager to move past the last few minutes. "Am I a mutant or something now? Do I need to register with SHIELD?" She paused. "Well, SHIELD's compromised, so I guess that's off the table. But you know what I mean."
"No," Lucien replied. "The potion was supposed to make your body accustomed to mana - a form of energy that's different from what mutants use. You probably have abilities now, but I'm quite sure you don't fall under the mutant category. Their powers operate on the X-gene, a genetic mutation."
"I see." Natasha tilted her head thoughtfully. "So am I like... the primordial vampire of a new race or something? The first of my kind?"
"That would be me, I guess," Lucien said. "You're the second one. If it even counts as a new race, which I'm sure it doesn't. We're just humans who've been adapted to use mana."
Natasha's eyes sparkled with mischief despite everything. "Let's say it is a new race. We're the only two members of it. Sounds like the plot of some spooky paranormal romance novel, doesn't it? The last two of an ancient bloodline, forced together by circumstances beyond their control..."
She was doing that thing she did - turning serious situations into jokes, deflecting them with humor and teasing. It was a defense mechanism, Lucien knew, but it was also just part of who she was.
He sighed at her antics, though internally he felt relief. If she was joking around like this, it meant she was feeling fine. The awakening hadn't left her diminished or damaged - if anything, she seemed more energetic than before.
But the situation was still serious, regardless of how much Natasha wanted to deflect with humor. They weren't out of danger, and he needed information.
Lucien turned serious, his expression shifting from relieved to focused. He stood up and extended his hand to help her to her feet.
"Now tell me in detail," he said as she took his hand and stood, testing her balance and finding it solid. "What exactly happened?"
He had a basic rundown from what she'd managed to tell him before the potion - SHIELD compromised, Avengers compromised, someone controlling them, encrypted location, person in Hawaii who could decrypt it.
But those were just fragments, pieces of a puzzle without context.
He needed to know in detail.
.....
Author's Note:
Happy New Year, everyone!
Thank you for sticking with this story and following Lucien's journey through 2024. Your support, comments, and enthusiasm keep me motivated to write. Here's to more epic battles, character development, and plot twists in 2025!
Wishing you all a fantastic year ahead filled with great reads and amazing adventures.
Let's make this year even better than the last!
— FreakyHaru
...
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